Google’s patent marketplace is part troll slayer, part greedy monster

Googlehas announced a new experimental patent buying service. It’s soliciting proposals from companies and individuals who want to sell their patents.

One reason for the scheme, which the company is calling the Patent Purchase Promotion, is to outflank trolls who swoop in to grab intellectual property from inventors and small outfits who find the process challenging.

Once Google’s closed the portal, it’ll review submissions and let patent holders know if it’s interested in doing a deal by June 26 2015.

The company predicts that it’ll be able to complete the process of buying up patents, after due diligence, by late August.

Google’s keeping its options open by defining the Patent Purchase Promotion as “an experiment” and cheekily notes in its blog post that we should see it as “a 20 percent project for [its] patent lawyers.”